You thought Rush Limbaugh was unpleasant – check out Rubina Nasir, a presenter on Leeds based Radio Asian Fever.
She said that homosexuals should be ‘beaten up’ and that a Muslim marrying a non-Mulslim was on ‘the straight path to hellfire’.
The presenter, known as ‘Sister Ruby’, said: “What should be done if they do it? [practise homosexuality].
“If there are two such persons among you, that do this evil, the shameful act, what do you have to do? Torture them; punish them; beat them and give them mental torture.”
“Allah states, ‘If they do such a deed [i.e. homosexuality], punish them, both physically and mentally.
“Mental punishment means rebuke them, beat them, humiliate them, admonish and curse them, and beat them up. This command was sent in the beginning because capital punishment had not yet been sent down.”
Compassion is at the heart of every great religion.
In a broadcast the following day she focused her attention on another Qur’anic verse and said it was critical of mixed-faith marriages.
She said: “What happens when a Muslim man or woman get married to a Mushrak [a follower of another religion).
“Listeners! Marriage of a Muslim man or woman with a Mushrak is the straight path to hellfire.
“Have my sisters and brothers, who live with people of bad religions or alien religions, ever thought about what would become of the children they have had with them – and the coming generation?
“Where the filth of shirk (the sin of following another religion) is present, where the dirt of shirk is present, where the heart is impure, how can you remove apparent filth. How many arrangements will you make to remove the apparent filth?
“We are saying that Mushraks have no concept of cleanliness and uncleanliness.”
This is on a station called Asian Fever. What, one wonders, do for instance Hindu listeners think of Sister Ruby? Atheists? Buddhists? Jains? Do they all listen happily while she calls them filth? Do they consider it all part of their interfaith work?